Commencement 2012 Photo Galleries

Eastman School of Music

Samuel Turner Reich takes a photo from the stage of Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre after his name is called during the Eastman School of Music ceremony.

Aaron Sperber hugs Elza Picasso-Hobin as candidates for degrees from the Eastman School of Music prepare for the ceremony.

The Eastman Trombone Choir, a student ensemble under the direction of John Marcellus, professor of trombone, heralded the graduates, guests, and honorees.

“We celebrate your possibilities, your next frontier. This celebration seals your possibilities,” said Doug Lowry, the Joan and Martin Messinger Dean of the Eastman School of Music. Reminding the graduates that George Eastman believed in history and possibilities as well as in community, he told the students, “Our urgent task is to create more community. The audience is our community not just in the concert hall but in the places where we live. Music is a powerful conduit to create community.”

Flanked by honorees Robert Wason, professor of music theory at the Eastman School, Glenn Watkins, the Earl V. Moore Professor Emeritus of Music History and Musicology at the University of Michigan, and Provost Ralph Kuncl (right), Doug Lowry, the Joan and Martin Messinger Dean of the Eastman School of Music (center), is welcomed to the stage of Kodak Hal.

Eastman Student Association president and tubist Justis Buchanan Kleber MacKenzie exhorted his classmates to “have the courage to do what you came here to do, whether it’s jazz, early music, modern music, or tuba . . . Have the courage to follow your heart and your intuition.”

Eastman’s annual Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching, which is kept under wraps until the award is presented to the recipient during commencement ceremonies, was awarded to Professor of Voice Carol Webber, who has taught at Eastman since 1991. “I have always believed in the power of music to make the intent of all tangible,” she said, and urged the students to “find your own voice and use it to expand the power of music.”

Pulitzer Prize–winning composer George Walker ’56E (DMA) received the honorary degree doctor of music. Noting that he had learned about the new doctor of musical arts degree program at Eastman in the New York Times, he said, “I had the good fortune to enter the DMA program soon after it was created by [early Eastman School Director] Dr. Howard Hanson” and he has valued the continuous relationship he’s enjoyed with his fellow students and with faculty over the years, “a source of pride and satisfaction to me.”

Honorary degree recipient George Walker ’56E (DMA) likened an individual’s career to a twisting path, or a “mosaic where some colors will be brighter than others.” Noting that persistence and resilience are necessary for survival and to recover focus on goals, he urged the students, “Go forth and extend the legacy you have inherited.”